I’d always read that to get the total size of a directory (and everything below it) on linux you use du -ch | grep total
This works but gets slower the more files/folders a directory contains. Then I remembered the tail program and presto — my life just got easier. du -ch | tail -n 1 will give exactly the same output as grep total and takes no time.
I know a lot of people who find this will be like… duh! But oh well, I’m happy about my discovery and now feel like I’ve accomplished something today.
